“*Twining the fantasy of an unfettered childhood adventure with the majestic reality of an ancient redwood forest, Fleming and Groenink offer an outdoors variation on a classic children’s rhyme: “This is the forest./ This is the steeple./ Giants and saplings/ and just a few people.” An expression of hope that curiosity and wonder can transform into stewardship and care.”
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Publishers Weekly STARRED Review
The Everything Trail
Illustration by Chuck Groenink from The Everything Trail. Written by Meg Fleming and published by Beach Lane Books/S&S (August 26, 2025)
Available August 26, 2025
The Everything Trail
Come along on an eye-popping journey through the forest with a group of young explorers ready to discover everything nature has to offer in this lyrical, awe-inspiring picture book.
The wind waves its hand.
The trees take a bow.
Everything’s big.
And everything’s small…
From giant redwoods to tiny saplings, steep canyons to shallow creeks, and soaring eagles to crawling critters, there are endless wonders to discover along a trail through the forest. This sweeping story of a day spent in nature will inspire young readers to soak in all the marvels, big and small, that surround them.
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What People Are Saying
“*Twining the fantasy of an unfettered childhood adventure with the majestic reality of an ancient redwood forest, Fleming (Rock That Vote) and Groenink (Whales in the City) offer an outdoors variation on a classic children’s rhyme: “This is the forest./ This is the steeple./ Giants and saplings/ and just a few people.” As intrepid young hikers, portrayed with various skin tones, set off, the book orients vertically across the spreads to portray towering trees looming far above. Across gently textured digital illustrations, striking bird’s- and worm’s-eye perspectives follow the kids walking in cool, green shadows, marveling at dappled sunlight, and losing socks in a creek. When the kids emerge from a tunnel into a sun-drenched meadow, the book’s orientation turns horizontal, adding to a sense of “the great open wide.” With the setting of the sun, the children wave goodbye to what they consider “a forest of friends,” and one youth even ardently embraces a redwood. It all reads as an expression of hope that curiosity and wonder can transform into stewardship and care. Ages 4–8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary. (Aug.)”
— Publishers Weekly STARRED Review
“On their first reads, kids will likely focus on the young adventurers, but repeat readers will enjoy spying forest animals around, above, and below. Will surely whet children’s appetites to get out and walk amid nature’s steeples.”